Of the seven states that held party primaries on Sept.14, Maryland had the highest number of Indian-American candidates, Democratic and Republican, and observers expect some of them to win their seats come Nov. 2.

Primaries were held Sept. 14 in Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. In Maryland, eight Indian-Americans were running for office.

Maryland House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, first elected in 1994, was running unopposed like the other two on the three-member Democratic slate. But he told News India Times he is running an aggressive campaign to make sure he gets elected in November. "Even though I am in a heavily Democratic district, they (Republicans) will paint a target on my back and try to take me out. Here they call me 'dialling for dollars,'" said Barve, adding that he needed the money to send out mailers and to help other Democratic candidates.

Another candidate for state delegate who won the Democratic Party nomination was Sam Arora from District 19, a longtime grass roots activist and Clinton supporter. "He ran the best campaign, the most energetic and best-conceived," Barve said. Arora's fundraising ability, admired partywide, got him through as did his door-knocking. Plus he abstained from negative campaigning. "His district is like mine. If you win in the primaries, you win in the general," Barve noted.

"Together, we built a true grassroots campaign for the state house that was about going door to door and talking to voters. Over the last few months, we knocked on around 20,000 doors, talking to Democrats in District 19 to get our message out. And it worked," Arora said on his website the day after the primaries.

"I may only stand 5'4" tall, but I am a lot taller standing on the shoulders of the nearly one thousand supporters who stepped up to lift our campaign up with volunteer time and donations. And that's how we will win in November," said Arora who was an aide to then Sen. Hillary Clinton and later worked for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Aruna Miller, a transportation engineer, was running in District 15 for the House of Delegates. Despite being a latecomer in the race, because the seat opened up just two months before the primary, Miller made it to the three top vote-getters among the five running. Along with Brian Feldman (31.1 percent) and Kathleen Dumais (30.86 percent), Miller (23.76 percent) will be part of the three-member slate from that district.

"I am strongly supporting her. We are very excited about her. She is a great candidate and we expect her to win in November," Barve told News India Times.

The most watched and nasty state-level race that grabbed media headlines was in the District 39 Democratic primary where state delegate Saqib Ali, a 35-year-old software engineer, and State Senator Nancy King battled it out for the State Senate seat.

The Washington Post called it "arguably the most negative" race. Ali ran on a liberal platform in the not-so-liberal district, observers said. He also had the disadvantage of going against a Democratic establishment that favored King. King ran an aggressive door-knocking campaign, sometimes drawing allegations of racism.

Ali portrayed King as a candidate who was in the pockets of alcohol and gambling interests while King showed Ali up as an irresponsible lawmaker. One of her mailings showed Ali on a couch in a lawmakers' lounge in the statehouse. The media also zeroed in on another flier where Ali's complexion appeared darker, drawing criticism for having racial undertones.

Ali still managed to secure 47.2 percent of the vote to King's 52.8 percent, a relatively good showing. Among the Republicans trying to get their party's nomination was Jody Venkatesan, who lost to Kyle Lorton in the District 13 race for state Senate. A U.S. Army veteran who specialized in counterintelligence, Venkatesan is a partner in a local accounting firm.

Republican candidate Dwight Patel was the only one on the party's ticket in the District 15 race for state Senate. Details on him were not available. Jay Bala, another Republican, also was unopposed in the District 28 race for state Senate. Neither of these candidates is expected to make it on Nov. 2.

Two other Democratic candidates who ran and lost in the primaries were Neeta Datt from District 14 and Shukoor Ahmed from District 28; both were running for the state Assembly.